Method for producing frozen ready-to-eat dishes based on rice, barley, wheat or spelt

ABSTRACT

A method for producing a frozen risotto or alike ready-to-eat dish based on rice, barley, wheat or spelt. For risotto the steps include, adding to rice the necessary liquid and particulate ingredients and cooking all the above ingredients up to desired cooking degree, rapidly cooling the thus prepared risotto and feeding it into a dosing apparatus, which forms sphere-like portions of a predetermined weight or volume, which are subjected to ultra-fast freezing and then packaged.

DESCRIPTION

1. Field of Application

The present invention broadly pertains to the frozen food industry.

Specifically, the invention relates to frozen food products based onrice, which are ready for consumption, after being heated, such asrisotto, paella and the like.

2. Prior Art

The so-called ready-to-eat dishes have met an ever increasing successamong the consumers, since the present way of living leaves very fewtime available for preparing meals.

The most successful ready-to-eat dishes are the so-called “primi piatti”(first dishes), such as various kinds of pasta with more or lesselaborated sauces and the risotto.

The technology which is currently used for producing ready-to-eat dishesincludes the steps of preparing the basic ingredients of the dish in aseparate manner, freezing them and finally mixing the frozen ingredientsin suitable ratios.

Thus, if it is desired to prepare, for example, a dish of pasta with seafood, the operative steps will be the following:

-   -   cooling the pasta in water, followed by draining, washing with        water and freezing;    -   preparing and cooking the sauce and converting it into frozen        pellets;    -   cooking and freezing the sea food;    -   mixing the three ingredients in suitable ratios among them and        finally packaging the thus obtained mixture.

The same process as above is carried out when it is desired to prepare arisotto with sea food. Also in this case, rice is separately cooked inwater, rinsed and frozen.

Whereas the results achieved with the present technology may be regardedas satisfactory as far as pasta-based dishes are concerned, the samedoes not apply to rice-based dishes.

In the case of pasta, the employed process involves a separate cookingof pasta and sauce, just as it happens with the traditional way ofpreparing pasta dishes. In such a case the organoleptic and consistencyfeatures of the final dish do not differ so much from those of acorresponding dish, which has been prepared in the traditional way.

On the contrary, in the case of a risotto, the way in which it isprepared is quite different from the traditional way. According to thelatter, rice shall not be cooked alone in water, but together withsauce, broth and optional particulate ingredients, such as sea food,mushrooms, asparagus etc.

It is well known that the organoleptic and structural characteristics ofa risotto which has been prepared in the traditional way are quitedifferent from those of rice which has simply been boiled and thenseasoned with a sauce.

Such a difference is due both to the different amount of water which isabsorbed in the two different manners of cooking and to the fact thatthe starch, which is released from rice upon cooking, is not lost whenrisotto is prepared according to the traditional recipe. This providesrisotto with a velvety consistency and improves its taste.

As a matter of fact, the risotto dishes which are currently available onthe market would not even deserve such a name, since the dishes whichare eventually obtained, after thawing and heating them, are rathercomparable to boiled rice, seasoned with a sauce and other optionalingredients.

Another drawback of the ready-to-eat dishes based on rice which arepresently on the market lies in the difficult portioning thereof.

The above ready-to-eat dishes are, in fact, mostly sold as bags or boxescontaining about 500 g (the equivalent weight of 2-3 portions) of amixture consisting of loose rice grains (obtained by freezing, in afluidized bed, rice which has been boiled in water and rinsed), saucepellets and various particulate ingredients (mushrooms, mussels,vegetables, etc.).

When the entire package is used, a final dish with the proper weightratios among the various components can be obtained, but if it desiredto just prepare, for instance, a single portion, a part of mixture suchas to contain the three ingredients with the correct ratios is veryunlikely to be drawn. The final dish will turn out to be either too muchor too less seasoned.

The problem underlying the present invention has been that of providinga ready-to-eat dish, based on rice or the like grain cereals, which hasorganoleptic and structural features as closest as possible to those oftraditional risotto and which allows for an easy portioning thereof,thus overcoming the above prior art inconveniences.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above problem has been solved, according to the invention, by amethod of producing a frozen risotto or a like rice-based ready-to-eatdish, including the steps of:

-   a) adding to rice the necessary liquid and particulate ingredients    for preparing a risotto according to the sequence provided for by    the traditional recipe and cooking all the above ingredients up to    desired cooking degree;-   b) rapidly cooling the thus prepared risotto;-   c) feeding the risotto into a dosing apparatus, which forms    sphere-like portions of a predetermined weight or volume;-   d) subjecting said portion to ultra-fast freezing;-   e) packaging a predetermined number of said frozen portions in    suitable bags or boxes.

Suitable liquid ingredients to be used in the above-described methodare, for instance, the following: meat- or fish- or vegetable-broth,tomato sauce and milk. Exemplary particulate ingredients are thefollowing: vegetables (asparagus, spinach, artichokes, pumpkin,zucchini, etc.), molluscs, crustaceans, fish, meat, mushrooms etc.

In the above-mentioned step of rapid cooling, the risotto is broughtfrom a temperature of above 100° C. to a temperature ranging from 4° to0° C.

The dosing apparatus for portioning the risotto can, for instance,consist of a screw dosing device.

The method of the present invention can also be carried out forpreparing ready-to-eat dishes based on cereal grains other than rice,such as, e.g., wheat, barley and spelt, which are suitable as well forbeing cooked in the same way as for risotto.

The frozen risotto or like ready-to-eat rice-based dish obtainedaccording to the method of the present invention comes out in the formof a plurality of drop-shaped portions of predetermined volume orweight, each one of these portions including all the ingredients of therisotto or like ready-to-eat rice-based dish in the appropriate ratios.

As a consequence, even when the frozen risotto is packaged in bagstypically containing 2-3 portions, it is always possible to prepare asingle portion of risotto with the correct ratios between the rice, thesauce and the remaining ingredients, by just using one third to one halfof the total number of the frozen drop-like portions.

The method of the present invention will be further described withreference to a non-limiting example, which is provided hereafter forillustration purpose.

EXAMPLE

Risotto with artichokes Rice 1500 g Artichokes 1000 g Cream  400 g Whitewine  300 g Cheese  300 g Extra-virgin olive oil  200 g Sunflower oil 200 g Onions  200 g Carrots  200 g Salt  155 g Vegetable broth  100 gBlack pepper  20 g Spinach  20 g Water 4000 g

Onions and carrots were minced and slightly fried in olive oil andsunflower oil for about 5 minutes. Afterwards, rice was added to theabove ingredients and let to toast for about 1 minute; then the whitewine was added and let to evaporate.

At this point, water and vegetable broth were added, followed by theartichokes, which had previously been sliced, and then by all theremaining ingredients but the cheese.

The above mixture was brought to the boiling temperature and was cookedat such a temperature for about 18 minutes. Afterwards, the mixture wascooled down to about 4° C. by means of a continuous apparatus and gratedcheese was added thereto.

The thus obtained risotto was pumped, by such means as not to damage thepieces, like for instance a lobe pump, into the nozzles of a dosingdevice for forming drop-shaped portions with a diameter of about 30-40mm, a thickness of 6-8 mm and a weight of 10 g.

The drops were thereafter immediately frozen to −20° C. in 3-5 minutesand packaged in suitable food containers, such as e.g. bags or trays orcarton boxes.

1. A method of producing a frozen risotto or a like ready-to-eat dishbased on rice, including the steps of: a) adding to rice the necessaryliquid and particulate ingredients for preparing a risotto according tothe sequence provided for by the traditional recipe and cooking all theabove ingredients up to desired cooking degree; b) rapidly cooling thethus prepared risotto; c) feeding the risotto into a dosing apparatus,which forms sphere-like portions of a predetermined weight or volume; d)subjecting said portion to ultra-fast freezing; e) packaging apredetermined number of said frozen portions in suitable bags or boxes.2. A method according to claim 1, wherein a cereal in grains selectedamong the group comprising barley, wheat and spelt is used instead ofrice.
 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said liquidingredients are selected among the group comprising meat or fish orvegetable-broth, tomato sauce and milk and said particulate ingredientsare selected among the group comprising vegetables, molluscs,crustaceans, fish, meat and mushrooms.
 4. A method according to any oneof the preceding claims, wherein in said step of rapid cooling b) therisotto is brought to a temperature of 4° to 0° C.
 5. A frozen risottoor a like frozen ready-to-eat dish based on rice, characterized in thatit is in the form of a plurality of drop-shaped portions ofpredetermined volume or weight, each one of these portions including allthe ingredients of the risotto or like ready-to-eat rice-based dish inthe appropriate ratios.